I would like to know how to process the following photo like in sport newspapers.
P9120703.ORF (19.3 MB)
From a field hockey game.
I asked AI to do the work here is what it explained, not certain that that is the way to go, it changed perspective and background, that is something of its own mind:
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I am not sure what you want to do here… AI generated a completely new photo than the one you provided.
First you need to get to the level the players are at, not shoot from above, that would provide the necessary subject isolation, the rest is just some basic raw editing.
Those darktable instructions make no sense. AI just made up some settings changes. I don’t think it ever run darktable in that image.
I agree what IA did with repositioning the players is not the concern. And yes that day I could not get on the field, rules apply, that hard ball to your face is dangerous and no nets.
AI produced a more crispy look, I just wonder what to do exactly to get there as example so I can experiment further.
Indeed, that why I come to the real world to get advice 
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They sound like LR instructions to me… with some insinuation of some local editing with masking… the ground level and tight crop sure do improve things but I think you could loosely follow the verbal instructions and see if you get close and if not then there is more to it than the reply shared with you… 
I had to try again, although I think I prefer my first try. It’s really hard not to turn the kid in white into an orange blob skin tone wise, very tricky color correction altogether. @redgoblin83 was this shot outside? The light is weird, even standard daylight in CC completely messes up the colors.
A pretty easy edit, as long as you don’t want to jazz up the color of the playing surface.
Just a note: AI is not going to give good instructions for darktable generally; There just isn’t enough material to train on. Also, my xmp is messy, so good luck figuring out what I am doing 
I would just try to look at the edited images you like and write down somethings you like: saturation/punchiness, emphasis on the players, the “zoom” or crop, the sharpening, etc.
Then for those things that you note down, just look up tutorials or in the darktable manual to figure out how to accomplish those things.
This is a learning process. It is a journey. It is not an easy preset situation most of the time.
Here is my edit in DT 5.6. Mainly cropping. This is a picture for a newspaper and not an advertisement, so therefore it should not be manipulated or prettied up in my view.
In my view the use of AI in news photographs is unethical as it generates new images rather than being a record of truth. AI generated images have been used by both sides of the conflict in Gaza to create false narratives. Maybe Adobe’s next slogan will be skip the news and just create it with AI.
P9120703.ORF.xmp (15.5 KB)
“highlights --20, shadows +15” … Yeah we don’t speak no Lightroom here 
This was outside daylight, with camera set to auto white balance.
The AI changed the facial expression and seems to have changed his proportions or lifted him off the ground. But stylistically, I don’t disagree.
P9120703 hockey_pr_0.ORF.xmp (25.2 KB)
I’d prefer to do better masking around the head, but that kind of change will become easy only after Daniele’s masking revamp change is released.
I suspect the large green playing surface modified the color of the daylight and made it challenging to get a pleasing color. I like the color @dark_photon achieved.
My secret sauce is my experimental DCP profile support
Left side is the standard color matrix, right side is the portrait camera profile.
What version of darktable did you use?
This sidecar makes darktable quit/crash.
I am using the darktable from the master branch at commit a1257a7c559b74059e55263a58d63a8085cf4f01 + my AI vibed patch to support dcp profiles: nix-configs/home-manager/programs/graphical-apps/darktable-dcp-support.patch at master · rafaelcgs10/nix-configs · GitHub
also, I get the DCP profiles from adobe:
https://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/How_to_get_LCP_and_DCP_profiles
